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Colorado Ballet announced the full 2018/2019 season today, and there is plenty to look forward too, but the big news is the collaboration featuring Colorado BalletAlongside Colorado’s Own Wonderbound and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Companies with four performances at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House March 8-10, 2019! Full Season Schedule

“We are delighted and honored to announce that we have partnered with these two respected ballet companies to bring a new work into existence, and onto the stage of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, performed by Colorado Ballet’s own dancers with live music by Matthew Pierce performed by the Colorado Ballet Orchestra. Today, performing arts companies are exploring creative ways to produce new and grand productions on limited budgets, and this collaboration gives all three companies a way to create something new and much larger than any of us would have been able to produce independently.”

GIL BOGGS Artistic Director

This collaborative program will showcase a contemporary work performed by Colorado Ballet, a new work choreographed by Wonderbound Artistic Director Garrett Ammon starring Colorado Ballet and Wonderbound dancers, and a new work choreographed by Artistic Director Cleo Parker Robinson featuring Colorado Ballet and Cleo Parker Robinson Dancers. This vibrant and innovative program will celebrate dance in Colorado and the incredible way that the art of dance can create joy and inspiration.

Wonderbound is an American dance company that lives at the convergence of tradition and innovation, vulnerability and courage, and intimacy and openness. Under the leadership of husband-and-wife team Garrett Ammon and Dawn Fay, Wonderbound is committed to the development and sharing of collaborative artistic experiences. These undertakings have come to define Wonderbound, producing creations that erase boundaries between mediums and engage artists and audiences in candid explorations of the human experience. https://wonderbound.com/

About Cleo Parker Robinson Dance

Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble

Cleo Parker Robinson Dance (CPRD) is a cultural ambassador, infusing vitality, innovation and education into every community they touch—around the corner and around the globe. CPRD became a 501(c)(3) Not-for-Profit organization in 1974, continuing to build upon its dance school and ensemble origins. In four decades, they have developed into an internationally esteemed organization that operates beyond the traditional performing arts model. https://cleoparkerdance.org/

Season subscriptions are on sale now and single tickets will be on sale July 15, 2018. Visit www.coloradoballet.org for more information.

Each year at the Colorado New Play Summit I make my picks for full productions by the Denver Center Theatre Company, and I had a perfect record, until 2016. The year included American Mariachi by José Cruz González. The reading was wonderful, but It wasn’t chosen for production that year. But now a full production has finally arrived! The world premiere is produced in association with The Old Globe. (the production continues in tact at the Old Globe March 23 – April 29)

This production directed by James Vásquez lets this talented company play our heartstrings as much as the fantastic Mariachi music in the story. Now it’s not a musical as much as it is a highly stylized story of memory, family, love, hope, and music.

When American Mariachi wasn’t produced right away I hoped there would be another chance to see it come to life in a full production. It was certainly worth the wait. This is a funny, and heartwarming story deftly told. Beautiful performances and production values capitalize on the magic unique to live theater.

The E-Ticket is Eden Lane’s Top Pick

AMERICAN MARIACHI

By José Cruz González
Directed by James Vásquez
Produced in association with The Old Globe

This is the best opportunity to hear your play with great artists, in a great location and in a great environment. This is a place where audiences really come to experience something new.”– José Cruz González, Playwright of American Mariachi, Part of the 2016 Colorado New Play Summit

Cherry Creek Theatre Company launches their second season as a resident company at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center with a regional premiere RESPECT: A Musical Journey of Women. The show is a musical review written by Dr. Dorothy Marcic based on her book, RESPECT: Women and Popular Music. For the Cherry Creek Theatre production director Shannan Steele and the company draw an original image of the show and create a gathering of friends celebrating one of the women’s book release. I asked Steele about how the concept developed.

Director Shannan Steele

EL: RESPECT is often produced as a revue and your production really creates a setting and Character/storyline. How did this approach develop?

SS: After reading the script, I felt there were personal elements for each of the characters that could easily get lost in the traditional review formula where the show is more presentational in nature. I wanted to see if the piece could land in a structure where women felt strong and connected enough to share their stories of struggle with each other, along with discovering the joys of how certain songs helped describe those pains…and then how other songs helped release those pains to allow real JOY to surface.

SS: For a show about the journey of women, I wanted the audience to observe 5 strong women (the show is actually written for 4…I built in the presence of the piano player as a true addition to the room, a fellow woman/friend/support) share their vulnerabilities, inside and out of the context of the music AS WELL as within the actual text. I wanted our journey over the last century not only to be shared through the songs of the time, the political and social achievements, but also through the triumphs available to all of us TODAY. The personal, emotional, perspective enhancing TRIUMPHS we all can find with each other.

Traci Kern and Sharon Kay White

SS: This concept required an intimate setting…a place welcoming enough to facilitate the kind of safe space where true sharing can occur. Hence the living room set design.

Cherry Creek Theatre Company presents the Regional Premiere of
RESPECT: A Musical Journey of Women

SS: The piece had windows for this concept to work, and I trusted my cast and crew to dive into the challenge with me. All those WOMEN rose to the challenge and I couldn’t be more proud.

Cherry Creek Theatre description of the show:

From “Someone to Watch Over Me” to “I Will Survive,” from the codependence of “I Will Follow Him” to the anger of “These Boots are Made for Walking,” to the cynicism of “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” and finally to the strength of “Hero,” “RESPECT: A Musical Journey of Women” is told through Top-40 music in this timely off-Broadway new musical production. Combining excerpts of 60 songs with women’s own stories about finding dreams, lost love, relationship issues, entering the workforce, gaining independence and more.

The audience on opening night, including the male identified attendees, seemed to enjoy the show in equal measure. While the evening unfolded I found myself responding to the music of course, after all they include so many great songs, and I also realized I wanted to know these women. It would be great fun to be part of this group of friends, and join in for one of these gatherings, and in a way, for this night, we all were.